Catheters are used for delivering drugs through vasculature and other body lumens for a variety of purposes. It is often desirable to deliver thrombolytic and other substances to the peripheral vasculature, in particular the peripheral venous vasculature, in order to prevent clot formation or to lyse clots in patients suffering from complications, such as thrombosis, or from conditions, such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
Typically, however, limited information about clot morphology is available to a clinician prior to selecting a treatment option. Accordingly, treatment methods are chosen in which the probability of clot resolution is high, but not always guaranteed. For example, a clinician may choose to utilize a traditional thrombolytic agent which is not clot specific; however, such agents put the patient at risk as all clotting is inhibited with the use of such drugs. Alternatively, a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which is a clot specific thrombolytic, i.e., more effective in the resolution of acute clots than chronic clots, may be utilized. However, utilizing an agent like tPA without knowing the morphology of the clot may result in wasted expense and effort, along with a delay in proper treatment.
While devices are available for measuring the physiological parameters of the vasculature for identifying the presence of blood clots, there is currently no real time detection of clot morphology within the treatment loop. It would be advantageous to provide intravascular devices for sampling and detecting the morphology of a blood clot. Such devices would provide the clinician with information about clot morphology in real time during, or shortly following, tissue sampling, for determining the best course of treatment for breaking up the clot.